Archinect - News

TenBerke completes hybrid‑CLT residential hall design at Brown University

2023-11-16T12:18:00-05:00

TenBerke has finished work on its two-hall dormitory project for Brown University.

The Brook Street Residence Halls project is part of the university’s plan to expand its on-campus housing offerings and was completed using a hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber structure. Brown says their realization creates an important new connection to the east side's Fox Point neighborhood, adding to its capacity to interface with the community of Providence while likewise maintaining its holistic sustainability strategy.

Image © Chris Cooper / ArchExplorer

“We set out to create a project that truly feels accessible in terms of how the buildings meet the ground. That means entries that are visible, a relationship to the street, a layering of landscape and plantings adjacent to the sidewalk, a nice tree canopy — design aspects that create a sense of vitality and activity that are appropriate to the neighborhood and the University,” Noah Biklen, the project’s lead and a Senior Principal at TenB...

REX opens The Lindemann Performing Arts Center at Brown University

2023-10-20T20:00:00-04:00

Brown University has shared photos to go along with the inauguration of its new REX/Joshua Ramus-designed Lindemann Performing Arts Center tomorrow in Providence, Rhode Island.

The building supports both performance and instruction on campus with an emphasis on creating new forms of collaboration inside a 101,000-square-foot container of flexibly configurable spaces. It combines with the twelve-year-old Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts next door to create the new Ronald O. Perelman Arts District, which is accessible from Brown’s main The Walk pedestrian corridor and provides the city with an added cultural venue as the university’s footprint within it expands.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

An extruding fluted aluminum rain screen facade gives the shoe box-like structure its complexity. The design includes a main hall that can be reconfigured five ways to accommodate between 70 and 530 people, depending on ne...

Deborah Berke Partners designs a new all-electric, hybrid steel and cross-laminated timber residential hall for Brown University

2023-02-20T15:18:00-05:00

In preparation for the Fall 2023 academic term, Brown University shares details of its new Deborah Berke Partners-designed Brook Street Residence Halls.

Located at the southeastern edge of the University’s 143-acre historic urban campus, the 125,00-square-foot development has room for 353 beds interwoven with green spaces that enhances the campus’ connection to nearby existing structures and Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood while providing capabilities for year-round stormwater retention.

Image courtesy of Deborah Berke Partners.

With its brick and terracotta material palette, the new halls are beholden to the older architecture of the campus and of the Federal style-rich city in passing. The split-volume residences come beset with strategic social spaces and a healthy influx of strategic natural light corridors, kitchenettes, and study nooks, especially when compared to other recent student housing proposals across the country of considerable size. This is both an all-electric an...

Five crisp interiors by BAMO: Your Next Employer?

2023-02-06T14:27:00-05:00

Following last week’s visit to the California/Switzerland-based Montalba Architects, we are using this week’s edition of our Meet Your Next Employer series to explore the work of San Francisco and Providence-based BAMO.

A studio of interior designers, architects, and artists, BAMO’s services range from interior architecture to custom furniture and accessories. Operating primarily across residential and hospitality environments, the firm has found critical acclaim for its projects in the United States and further afield in Madrid, Bangkok, and Kobe.

Capella Hotel Bangkok by BAMO. Image credit: Panoramic Studios

Describing themselves as “problem solvers, visionaries, luxury connoisseurs, fun fanatics, detail zealots, award winners, and experience creators,” the firm places an emphasis on observing and articulating details from sources including art, architecture, fashion, and film. “We travel frequently, index everything, and study how people use space,” the studio says. “We connect an...

Deborah Berke Partners and Ballinger to lead new Integrated Life Sciences Building project at Brown University

2022-10-18T11:04:00-04:00

Brown University has announced the selection of Deborah Berke Partners and Ballinger to lead a new Integrated Life Sciences Building project near its Providence, Rhode Island campus.

The new structure will be located near Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School in the city’s Jewelry District and offers a consolidation of labs and other facilities for researchers in public health, bioengineering, and other types of related scientific activity.

“We aim to satisfy the work needs of the initial occupants and the current science but not to be so specific and customized that the space can’t evolve as science — and scientists — change,” Ballinger senior principal Terry Steelman explained.

Related on Archinect: AIA Healthcare Design Awards 2021 winners announced

"These buildings have a long lifespan and accommodate a wide range of occupants, in some cases for the short-term. So much will change over the lifespan of the building," he added. "When we designed Sidney Frank Hall, for example, gene...

Meet community engagement champions CIVIC: Your Next Employer?

2022-08-15T09:00:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based OPEN OFFICE, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series east to Providence, Rhode Island, where we find CIVIC.

Founded by architect Manuel Cordero, and based in Providence’s Innovation District, CIVIC’s work is defined by an inclusive vision of the built environment, and in particular, the public realm. Their portfolio has thus developed to include a collaboration with Arup on a masterplan for public spaces across Providence, as well as ongoing educational and community projects.

The firm now seeks to expand by advertising for a multidisciplinary designer role on Archinect Jobs. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about life as an architect, we spoke with CIVIC founder Manuel Cordero for a behind-the-scenes look at the studio.

CIVIC's workspace is in CIC Innovation Campus in Providence. Image via CIVIC

How did CIVIC get started?

I am a licensed architect, but have alway...

Preservation and micro-apartment living come together to save America's first shopping mall

2020-03-02T12:56:00-05:00

The rise of online shopping has drastically reduced the need for shopping malls across America. However, in Providence, Rhode Island, the Westminster Arcade, America's first shopping mall, has found a way to turn this supposed "retail apocalypse" into an opportunity to build more housing.

Westminster Arcade from Views of Providence (1900) printed by L.H. Nelson Company.

A Country Living article reports that the formerly abandoned mall has been transformed into a new commercial and residential hub for micro-apartment living. Rather than demolishing the building, developers wanted to preserve the structure not only for its historical value, but for its housing potential. Northeast Collaborative Architects along with developer Evan Granoff helped lead a renovation project that aims to transform the aging Greek Revival style mall into The Arcade Providence, a micro-loft apartment complex that includes 48 rentable units along its two upper floors. The former mall was built in 1828 and is...

Pedestrian bridge in Providence anticipates bustling activity with sweeping wooden form

2019-12-18T08:00:00-05:00

The Providence River Pedestrian Bridge was designed by Detroit-based architecture firm inFORM Studio and structures designer BuroHappold for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT).

Photo: Kroo Photography

Flowing through the heart of the city, the new bridge connects two new waterfront parks and expands Providence's Innovation & Design District. “Current and proposed projects around the new Innovation & Design district stand to add more than 1,600 new residential units and 750,000 square feet of commercial and research space to the area,” said Craid Schwitter, partner at BuroHappold expressed in a statement.

Photo: Kroo Photography

The increase in development surrounding the project will accommodate 4,500 residents and 2,100 new employees, which includes housing that will serve the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Brown University, Johnson & Wales University, and other local institutions.

Radical Reconfigurability; A Conversation With REX, Threshold and Theatre Projects About the Brown University Performing Arts Center

2019-05-21T09:30:00-04:00

This week Ken and I are speaking with the leadership team responsible for the upcoming Brown University Performing Arts Center – Joshua Ramus of REX, Carl Giegold of Threshold Acoustics and David Rosenburg of Theatre Projects.

Brown University Performing Arts Center, East Rendering by Luxigon

The Brown University Performing Arts Center is a formally stunning project designed by REX for the Brown University campus in the relatively small town of Providence, Rhode Island. The exterior of the almost 100,000 square foot building consists of a large monolithic mass clad in aluminum, with a cantilevered glass-encased 13-foot tall clearstory jutting out from the lobby level, covering a lower-level outdoor public space.

From left to right: Joshua Ramus, Carl P. Giegold, & David H. Rosenburg

The interior of the Arts Center, however, is where the magic happens. To facilitate the university’s requirement to host performances for a variety of needs and audience sizes, REX and his team of theate...

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '16

2016-03-02T14:06:00-05:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2016

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Next up is the Spring '16 Architecture + Landscape Architecture lecture series from the Rhode Island School of Design, Department of Architecture.

Listed below are upcoming events.

Mar 14
Emily Abruzzo & Gerald Bodziak / Abruzzo Bodziak Architects
6.30 p.m., BEB 106
Reception preceding

Mar 24
Emanuel Admassu & Jen Wood / AD-WO
Gallery talk 6 p.m., BEB Gallery

Apr 5
Shane Coen / Coen + Partners
Landscape Architecture Haffenreffer Lecture
6:30 p.m., BEB 106

Apr 15
R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE
written and performed by Doug Jaco...

"Too old to be hip but too young to be venerated" – say good-bye to the brutalist Fogarty building in downtown Providence

2016-01-15T19:29:00-05:00

The hotel plan by the Procaccianti Group Inc. [...] is being welcomed by construction-trades unions, city officials and surrounding business owners. But Ned Connors, an architect and historian of the Weybosset urban renewal project, says he will miss the Fogarty building. It’s not ugly, he said, it’s just … different. At about 50 years old, he said the Fogarty building is in the most dangerous time in a structure's life: when it’s too old to be hip but too young to be venerated.

Sadly the architectural design of the proposed extended stay high-rise hotel that has been OKed by Providence City Council last December to replace the Fogarty building could not be any more generic and bland.

What do you think, Archinectors? Do we have Providence locals here among our readers that can share their memories of the Fogarty's glory days?

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '15

2015-03-10T13:28:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter-Spring 2015

Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session! Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

The next poster comes from the Rhode Island School of Design Department of Architecture and Department of Landscape Architecture.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Listed below are upcoming events only. All events take place in the Bayard Ewing Building, unless noted otherwise. Lectures take place in BEB 106 at 6:30 p.m.

LECTURES

Mar 16
Mark West / CAST

Apr 6
Iñaki Abalos + Renata Sentkiewicz / Abalos+Sentkiewicz arquitectos

Apr 9
Richard Roark / OLIN

Apr 24
Bernard Tschumi / Bernard Tschumi Architects

Apr 28
Thomas Woltz / Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Apr 30
Lisa Iwamoto / Iwamot...

Get Lectured: RISD, Spring '14

2014-03-20T13:46:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2014

Archinect's Get Lectured is up and running again for the Winter/Spring '14 term! As a refresher from our Fall 2013 guide, every week we'll feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current season. If you're not doing so already, be sure to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Today's poster features the Spring '14 lecture series at the Rhode Island School of Design, School of Architecture.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Listed below are upcoming lectures only. Events will take place from 6:30-8 pm at the Bayard Ewing Building, Room 106.

April 7
Vikram Pakrash

April 21
SHoP Architects

May 5
Ana Alemán + Axel Paredes / paredes+alemán arquitectos

For more event details, click here.

GO Design’s winning proposal for the Billy Taylor Challenge

2013-11-22T19:07:00-05:00

GO Design, a London-based studio founded by architect Go Sugimoto, sent us their proposal for the Billy Taylor Challenge that they recently won. The competition challenged participants to design a renovation plan for the former house of Billy Taylor, an influential mentor figure for the local youth community in Providence, Rhode Island. After his passing in 1987 at the age of 27, his house was abandoned until it was donated to the Billy Taylor Project.

Images via go-design.co.

Providence, RI Takes Grand Prize at Mayors Challenge

2013-03-20T19:59:00-04:00

Providence, Rhode Island was recently selected as America's most innovative city at the nationwide Mayors Challenge, taking home the $5M-Grand Prize for its idea "Providence Talks." The Mayors Challenge, hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies, is a competition to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life - and that ultimately can be shared with cities across the nation.